Ensuring free education in national legislation and aligning legal frameworks with the legal requirements of the right to education and the commitments to Sustainable Developmental Goal 4 is one of the most important challenges towards the full realisation of the right to education. States have the obligation to make primary education free and compulsory. While free primary education shall be immediately realised, the other levels of education can be made progressively free. At the same time, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (General Comment No. 36 (para. 36, 39) recommends that education should be free and compulsory from pre-school to secondary. Besides, States have politically committed through the Sustainable Developmental Goal 4 to provide free primary and secondary education and at least one year of free and compulsory pre-primary education of good quality by 2030. This indicator evaluates if States have guaranteed free education in their domestic laws. If yes, check what levels of education it covers.
UNESCO data for SDG indicator 4.1.7 on the number of years of (a) free and (b) compulsory primary and secondary education guaranteed in legal frameworks and SDG indicator 4.2.5 on the number of years of (a) free and (b) compulsory pre-primary education guaranteed in legal frameworks.
Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 28.1 (a); International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Articles 13.2 (a) and 14, General Comment No. 11, General Comment No. 13, (paras. 10, 13 and 14); Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Article 10 (a), General Comment No. 36 (para. 36 and 39).
See also RTE’s website, international instruments.
See also non-binding instruments:
- Tashkent Declaration and Commitments to Action for Transforming Early Childhood Care and Education (Guiding Principles and Strategies for Transformational ECCE, para. 5.iv)
- Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (Sustainable Development Goals 4.1 and 4.2)
Specific References about free education from pre-school to higher education :
- General Comment No. 36 of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, para. 36: ‘Education has to be affordable to all, without discrimination based on sex or any other prohibited ground, and should be free and compulsory from pre-school up to the secondary system and progressively up to the tertiary level.’
- General Comment No. 36 of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, para. 39: ‘The Committee recommends that States parties take all measures to ensure that user fees and hidden costs do not negatively impact girls’ and women’s access to education by instituting the following measures :
a) provision of universal, free and compulsory education from pre-school up to the secondary level regardless of socio-economic status for citizens of the state as well as for girls and women with migrant and refugee status ;
b) affordable education at the tertiary level, by reducing user fees and indirect and opportunity costs ;
- Tashkent Declaration and Commitments to Action for Transforming Early Childhood Care and Education, Guiding Principles and Strategies for Transformational ECCE, para. 5.iv: ‘Enhance policy and legal frameworks to ensure that the right to education includes ECCE. ECCE is key to achieving the right to education for all and to enable the fulfilment of other social rights. Thus, the availability, accessibility, adaptability and acceptability of ECCE services must be reflected in policies and legal frameworks. This includes the right to at least one year of free and compulsory pre-primary quality education for all children’.
See below the definition of free education and the progressive introduction of free education provided by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
Free of charge. 'The nature of this requirement is unequivocal. The right is expressly formulated so as to ensure the availability of primary education without charge to the child, parents or guardians. Fees imposed by the Government, the local authorities or the school, and other direct costs, constitute disincentives to the enjoyment of the right and may jeopardize its realization. They are also often highly regressive in effect. Their elimination is a matter which must be addressed by the required plan of action. Indirect costs, such as compulsory levies on parents (sometimes portrayed as being voluntary, when in fact they are not), or the obligation to wear a relatively expensive school uniform, can also fall into the same category'. (CESCR, Comment No. 11, para. 7).
Progressive introduction of free education means that ‘while States must prioritize the provision of free primary education, they also have an obligation to take concrete steps towards achieving free secondary and higher education’ CESCR, General Comment No.1 3 (para. 14). The Committee clarifies that ‘article 14 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, specifies that the target date must be “within a reasonable number of years” and, moreover, that the time frame must “be fixed in the plan”. In other words, the plan must specifically set out a series of targeted implementation dates for each stage of the progressive implementation of the plan. This underscores both the importance and the relative inflexibility of the obligation in question.’ (CESCR, General Comment No. 11, para. 10).